<p>Just because you went to a better school, does not mean that you are better. I am probably going to go to UVA or Syracuse University, and there are a lot of kids in my class who are probably going to go to a better school. This will probably make them look better than me. However, what if I show more passion in my work and ambition at my job interview than them? Even with that will employers rather hire the Ivy Leaguer or the State University graduate?</p>
<p>It certainly wouldn’t hurt to go to an Ivy League school. The Ivy League has advantages.</p>
<p>I am quite familiar with Syracuse. It is a great school…underrated. Students from Syracuse can got on to become successful. You can get an excellent education at Syracuse.</p>
<p>Same is certainly true at UVA.</p>
<p>you can’t really compare UVA and Syracuse as if they were the same. UVA is more comparable to Ivy League schools than is Syracuse.</p>
<p>The Ivy League has undeniable benefits but people are successful from almost all schools (Joe Biden went to SU Law). It’s really all about how hard your work, what you do with your degree, how you present yourself…a whole slew of factors. I have a friend whose parents went to CC and are very well off and a teacher who went to Harvard at 16 and is now miserable, bitter, not the brightest of the bunch, and well…working as a teacher in a semi-decent public school in the middle of suburbia.</p>
<p>One strategy:</p>
<p>be on the top quartile wherever you go; relative stars who work hard will tend to obtain more of the benefits of the school</p>
<p>Another strategy:</p>
<p>Find a school that fits you well; the Ivies are different enough wherein it’s hard for me to imagine a person who is true to herself to desire any old Ivies; apply to a school, not a Brand Name</p>
<p>In a word: no.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter. Most people in the world don’t even get a college education. God forbid if you were to get one at a SECOND TIER american institution.</p>
<p>The Ivy League is great, but just going to a university in general is great. Don’t think Ivy is awesome just because it’s Ivy. Remember, the Ivy League is really just a football league.</p>
<p>My application may get a second look that yours doesn’t, but when we both get in the room we sink or swim on our merits not the name on the diploma.</p>
<p>^Well put.</p>
<p>genevieve, the only reason you are not applying to Ivies from what I can decipher is that you are frustrated by the success of others. If this is indeed true then you will probably fail regardless of where you go to college. The last thing employers want is an obsessively self-conscious person with a terrible inferiority complex.</p>
<p>Oh, and to answer the general question, it’s not so much being in an Ivy but just being in a top school (of course all of their Ivies are top schools). Yes, there is a difference, but only if you seize the opportunities offered at an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>I think your answer can be found in the number of students that turn down the Ivies every year (and not for financial reasons). Four years is a long time; if a student can receive a similar education at a school he or she likes much more, why not go there?
I think students are influenced way too much by the name and find themselves pressured to spend those years at a place where they aren’t happy.</p>
<p>My parents went to Cornell, and they’ve told me that the only good reason to go to an Ivy vs. another really good school is if you’re really into doing research that needs the absolute most world class equipment. Or, of course, if you feel like the school is a really good fit for you. Like modestmelody said, it’s not going to make or break you career. Experience, performance and attitude are what really count.</p>
<p>Some of the most successful people didn’t even go to college.</p>
<p>Take that as you will.</p>
<p>I pretty much am a perfectionist. Everything needs to be perfect. My grades, my scores, my ECs, and my work has to be perfect or else. If I apply to Ivy League, and if I do not succeed, because of the rigor, I am afraid I cannot survive.</p>
<p>^^ That is not a good attitude. Although the CC people here seem like perfectionists, most of us are pretty laidback and understand that life is too precious to worry about absolute numbers and prestige.</p>
<p>How many of these threads are we going to have?</p>
<p>There have been several articles published about studies done on Ivy League graduates vs. non-Ivy League graduates. They generally find that what sets these students apart, if anything, is their ambition and motiviation. However, when you compare students who got INTO these top schools, but chose to go somewhere else, vs. those who chose to go to the top schools, there’s virtually no difference.</p>
<p>What matters more is what you do in undergrad and personality characteristics, as well as where you want to work. Some top firms are reliant upon impressing clients in order to get them. For example, management consultant firms: if you’re running a business and you had to pick a fresh-out-of-undergrad 23-year-old working their first real job ever to give you suggestions about how to fix your business, would you pick a Wharton or Columbia grad or would you want a grad from Kentucky State? These firms assume that their clients will want Ivy and other top grads and thus only recruit at those schools, although grads from other places can get jobs there, they just have to find out about consulting on their own.</p>
<p>However, let’s say that you want to be a nurse. IMO, if you want to be a nurse, paying $50,000 a year to go to a top school is ill-advised against going to your local public university and earning a nursing degree. Hospitals don’t care about whether you got your nursing degree at some top school that offers nursing or Kentucky State; they care that you 1) have your license and 2) know how to do the stuff you say you do and 3) about your beside manner.</p>
<p>These top schools have more resources, I will say that. I found that out after coming to Columbia – there’s money everywhere, from the landscaping of the campus to the design of the dorms to the research materials you can get. Alumni networks are also useful.</p>